[Infowarrior] - Combatting the Surveillance Industrial Complex

[Richard Forno]

Combatting the Surveillance Industrial Complex (8/9/2004)

THE PRIVATIZATION OF SURVEILLANCE

The U.S. security establishment is rapidly increasing its ability to monitor
average Americans by hiring or compelling private-sector corporations to
provide billions of customer records. The explosive growth in surveillance
by government and business is creating a "Surveillance-Industrial Complex"
(PDF) that threatens all of our privacy.

ABOUT THE REPORT

This report makes the case that, across a broad variety of areas, the same
dynamic of the "privatization of surveillance" is underway. Different
dimensions of this trend are examined in depth in four separate sections of
the report:

"Recruiting Individuals." Documents how individuals are being recruited to
serve as "eyes and ears" for the authorities even after Congress rejected
the infamous TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) program that
would have recruited workers like cable repairmen to spy on their customers.

"Recruiting Companies." Examines how companies are pressured to voluntarily
provide consumer information to the government; the many ways security
agencies can force companies to turn over sensitive information under
federal laws such as the Patriot Act; how the government is forcing
companies to participate in watchlist programs and in systems for the
automatic scrutiny of individuals' financial transactions.

"Mass Data Use, Public and Private." Focuses on the government's use of
private data on a mass scale, either through data mining programs like the
MATRIX state information-sharing program, or the purchase of information
from private-sector data aggregators.

"Pro-Surveillance Lobbying." Looks at the flip side of the issue: how some
companies are pushing the government to adopt surveillance technologies and
programs based on private-sector data.

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http://www.aclu.org/safefree/resources/18512res20040809.html